“Gabby and Mark: Courage and Hope” Ranks as #1 Program at 10:00 PM

Diane Sawyer’s “20/20? Special Nearly Triples the Audience of NBC’s “Rock Center”

The Special Edition of “20/20? with Diane Sawyer reporting “Gaby and Mark: Courage and Hope” averaged 13.4 million Total Viewers and a 3.9 rating/9 share among Adults 25-54 and 2.8 rating/7 share among Adults 18-49, according to Nielsen Media Research.

In the 10 o’clock hour, a Special Edition of “20/20? with Diane Sawyer ranked as the most-watched TV show overall and ranked #1 across all key Women demos (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).   “20/20? featured Diane Sawyer’s exclusive first interview with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

The Special Edition of “20/20? with Diane Sawyer reporting dominated NBC’s competing “Rock Center with Brian Williams” in the hour, nearly tripling the NBC newsmagazine in Total Viewers (+198%) and more than doubling its Adult 18-49 delivery (+115%). Rock Center featured Bob Costas’ exclusive interview with former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky.

Among both Total Viewers and key Adults (AD18-49/AD25-54), the special edition of 20/20 stood as ABC’s biggest newsmagazine telecast in over 4 months – since 7/10/11 with Diane Sawyer’s exclusive Jaycee Dugard interview.

As the special edition of “20/20? aired Monday night on the ABC Television Network, “Gabby Giffords” quickly became a hot topic online trending on Twitter in the U.S. and worldwide at various times throughout the evening. In addition, on Wednesday morning “Gabby Giffords” was the #3 Google search trend in the U.S., “Mark Kelly” was #11, “Gabrielle Giffords” came in at #16.

David Sloan and Eric Avram are the executive producers of “Gabby and Mark: Courage and Hope.”